Many thanks for the information from all who replied. From the debate that 
followed, obviously this is an area which is of interest to many parties!
Following Mark Post's advice and encouragement our Linux techies managed to 
find the Java download on the RedHat site. 
Currently we are evaluating RedHat for z/Linux, since our current Intel web 
services are based on RedHat, and we are just coming to the end of a 30 day 
trial. Guess we should give SuSe a go!

Best regards,
John

John Cousins
Senior IT Officer
Central Support Services ICT Division
Bristol City Council
Romney House
Romney Avenue
PO Box 1380
Bristol BS99 3HB

Tel : 0117 922 4705
Fax: 0117 922 3983
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 14/03/2008 16:00 >>>
>>> On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at  7:48 AM, in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
John Cousins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: 
-snip-
> I currently have a couple of virtual RedHat 5 zLinux virtual machines set 
> up, and need to install Java.
> Our Linux techs say we must have Sun Java, the developers want Java 
> 1.5.0_05-b05, but my trawl of the web suggests that Sun Java is not 
> available in z/Linux!

Not surprisingly, Sun Microsystems thinks that Linux on IBM mainframes is a Bad 
Idea [tm], largely I suspect because it cuts into their hardware sales.  As a 
result, you won't be finding a Sun Java for Linux on System z.  (It will be 
interesting if they decide to provide one for OpenSolaris on System z at some 
point.)

> Looks like I can download Java from IBM:
> http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/linux/download.html 

I wouldn't think you should have to.  Red Hat ships the IBM Java for their 
other platforms.  For RHEL v5 it's in the "Supplementary" channel.  I would 
imagine you'll find it there for s390x as well.  You probably don't want to get 
into the business of providing your own Java support.  That's theoretically why 
you're paying Red Hat (or IBM) a good sum of money.  Downloading stuff and 
installing it will mean they won't support any problems with that package.

> but will this be good enough for our picky developers?

Only they can answer that question.  As James pointed out, it passes all of the 
tests required to be branded Java.  I have seen at least one problem where the 
developers were claiming that IBM's JDK behaved somewhat differently than Sun's 
did.  I don't know if it's been resolved yet or not.  But, that's the first 
I've heard of anything like that since early 2000, when I started caring about 
such things.  I expect your developers will whine loudly, but still be able to 
do their jobs.


Mark Post

----------------------------------------------------------------------
For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390

______________________________________________________________________
'Do it online' with our growing range of online services - 
http://www.bristol.gov.uk/services 

Sign-up for our email bulletin giving news, have-your-say and event information 
at: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/newsdirect 

Watch webcasts of Council meetings at http://www.bristol.gov.uk/webcast

----------------------------------------------------------------------
For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390

Reply via email to